Pioneer Heritage

[Anon70]

I live far away from the Morridor. In a community rich in diversity and culture. Youth conference this week-pioneer treks and handcart activities......sigh.

[alas]

Even in Utah, with having handcart pioneers as ancestors, I hate glorifying the pioneers and making blind faith in leaders into something noble when it resulted in so many deaths. I frankly consider my handcart pioneers kind of stupid, well naive about winter across the high plains of Wyoming, and the leaders who told them to leave so late in the summer as corrupt. They didn't want so many people to have to spend the winter in someplace safe cause that would cost more money and these poor people had already spent everything they had on tickets for the ship that brought them to the US. They would have to have the church support them through the winter---can't have that. Get them to Utah even if half of them freeze to death. Yup, let's all whitewash history into faith promoting myth.

[Corsair]

Mormons are really proud of pioneers. It's an example of large group of people who were willing to "Follow the Prophet" and make a dangerous trek to a new land where LDS leaders had decades of religious autocracy. Most pioneers lived and died in humble abasement before the prophet that sent them to a remote wilderness to toil away their mortality in poverty, sacrifice, and obedience. The pioneer spirit greatly desired by leaders today.

[alas]

Mormons are really proud of pioneers. It's an example of large group of people who were willing to "Follow the Prophet" and make a dangerous trek to a new land where LDS leaders had decades of religious autocracy. Most pioneers lived and died in humble abasement before the prophet that sent them to a remote wilderness to toil away their mortality in poverty, sacrifice, and obedience. The pioneer spirit greatly desired by leaders today.

I don't know if it is pride in them or a tool the leaders can use to guilt common members into obedience. Kind of like, "look what these people sacrificed for you. How can you throw away this kind of sacrifice?" Kind of like don't ever eat out with my husband, because if you don't eat every bite, he will tell you how that cow sacrificed its life for you and how can you just throw that kind of sacrifice away. He TRIES to do it all with a straight face because if he cracks up laughing, it gives it away. He pulled it on a friend once in Florida about not eating all her shrimp and made her eat the rest and she was sick from eating too much. Who would dare to turn their back on a church who the founder gave his life for, plus all those poor children who died crossing the plains to establish Zion.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

This is a mixed topic for me. On one hand I look at what these people accomplished in populating so much of the western US and am simply amazed at what they built. Going from living in adobe hillside caves and wagon boxes and nearly starving to death, to building the amazing infrastructure we enjoy here in the western US today. It is an amazing human accomplishment. On the other hand, if my pioneer ancestor hadn't been duped, maybe a form of me would be kickin' it over in Western Europe having a great time. Except that is also weird because "I" wouldn't even be "Me". In my current form, I wouldn't exist, since my DNA is a combination of all those tree roots that were a result of other pioneers. Deep stuff man!

[MerrieMiss]

I’ve never been on a pioneer trek, but I think it sounds goofy and promotes characteristics, ideals, and a past that is deeply flawed. I doubt I would have enjoyed it as a youth, and I certainly wouldn’t enjoy going as a leader.

I live in the western US, in a non-Mormon area, that was heavily settled and influenced by pioneers (not the Mormon variety). Every year our school district has the kids (4th grade, I think) decorate little red wagons, and you can see the kids walking a hike and pulling the wagons around the community until they end at the park and have a picnic lunch and play. The kids love it and remember it fondly.

On one hand I look at what these people accomplished in populating so much of the western US and am simply amazed at what they built. Going from living in adobe hillside caves and wagon boxes and nearly starving to death, to building the amazing infrastructure we enjoy here in the western US today. It is an amazing human accomplishment.

The hard work, determination, and general lives that these people lived, as well as the infrastructure built and that we enjoy today is something to be celebrated. I’m not a big fan of the Mormon interpretation of “pioneer,” or the idea that the only pioneers out there were Mormons – something I think Mormons forget sometimes. Many, many people lived very different pioneer experiences; Mormonism is just a part.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

I’ve never been on a pioneer trek, but I think it sounds goofy and promotes characteristics, ideals, and a past that is deeply flawed. I doubt I would have enjoyed it as a youth, and I certainly wouldn’t enjoy going as a leader.

I live in the western US, in a non-Mormon area, that was heavily settled and influenced by pioneers (not the Mormon variety). Every year our school district has the kids (4th grade, I think) decorate little red wagons, and you can see the kids walking a hike and pulling the wagons around the community until they end at the park and have a picnic lunch and play. The kids love it and remember it fondly.

On one hand I look at what these people accomplished in populating so much of the western US and am simply amazed at what they built. Going from living in adobe hillside caves and wagon boxes and nearly starving to death, to building the amazing infrastructure we enjoy here in the western US today. It is an amazing human accomplishment.

The hard work, determination, and general lives that these people lived, as well as the infrastructure built and that we enjoy today is something to be celebrated. I’m not a big fan of the Mormon interpretation of “pioneer,” or the idea that the only pioneers out there were Mormons – something I think Mormons forget sometimes. Many, many people lived very different pioneer experiences; Mormonism is just a part.

Very true, I like what historian Will Bagley often says in his speeches at the post mormon conferences, which paraphrased is that you can be proud of what they did, while still not buying into the ideology.

Will Bagley - The truth about trek
https://youtu.be/Ou47dupzoys